The Return of the Rat Bandit
by Ungol The Goblin
Summary: When their hideout is destroyed, Chin and his gang of bandits must set out and start anew.
1. Chapter 1

It was midnight. An inn was on fire. The inn was built upon a rock in the middle of a river, yet the cold water did little to deter the flames. From the shore a group of onlookers, silhouettes against the blazing flame, watched in silence. Then one of them, the smallest amongst them, spoke.

"Da-Ming?" he asked, his hairless tail flicked impatiently, yet his voice was eerily calm.

"…_yes sir?_" Da-Ming was a very large rat, he stood a whole head above the others.

"Da-Ming would you be so kind as to inform me as to what happened?"

"uhhhh what happened, sir?"

"Seeing as it is, undoubtedly, your fault" his voice was misleadingly calm.

"It couldn't be my fault sir, I made sure to put the candle down carefully sir"

"Where did you put it down Da-Ming?"

"In the workroom, like you said boss"

"Where in the workroom, to be specific?"

"Uh… near those barrels"

"…those barrels? The ones storing chemicals?"

"Yeah…but you said those wouldn't catch fire, so it can't be tha-"

"Da-Ming come over here"

"I don't want to"

"Come here Da-Ming"

"No, you're going to hit me!"

"Da-Ming, I promise I will not strike you, I just want to talk, come here please"

The large rat moved forward cautiously.

"You stupid bloody idiot!" the small rat yelled, suddenly turning around and swatting Da-Ming repeatedly with his rice hat "I said those barrels were INflammable not UNflammable!"

"Ow! You promised you wouldn't hit me! Ouch! Ow!"

The smaller rat was chasing Da-Ming around in a circle, mercilessly beating him with his hat.

"You could've killed us all you brain dead dolt! That's what you were trying to do wasn't it!? Sabotage! Traitor! Scallywag! Turn-Coat! Assassin!"

"Ouch! Ow ow ow!"

"Betrayal! Betrayal!"

"Mr. Chin? Sir?" came a timid voice.

"What is it Bai-Ling!?" Chin, the smaller rat, turned around, his one eye glowing evilly in the dark. Standing in front of him was a bat, her pale fur standing out in the darkness around them.

"What about Mrs. Li and her family? They're all still in there"

"Who cares"

"But-"

Bai-Ling was interrupted by a screaming rabbit as she threw herself out a window into the river, followed by multiple other rabbits.

"Well that takes care of that" Chin said, still furious "Now they can make us tea! Because that's what we need! Tea! Who cares about Mrs. Li and her bloody family!? All they ever do is make us tea! All our equipment! All our loot! All my weapons! All gone!"

"Yes but-"

"All gone! Because this treacherous cur! This loutish nincompoop here" Chin said gesturing to Da-Ming "Doesn't know what inflammable means!" Chin gave Da-Ming another swat with his hat.

"What do we do now sir?"

"I don't know! I…guess we wait until the fire dies down, then go in and see what we can salvage"

"Then what?"

"Then what!? We find a new hideout idiot!"

"Oh…" Bai-Ling looked down at her feet "I'll miss this one"

"Stop moping Bai-Ling! We're bandits! Bandits don't mope!"

"Sorry sir"

"Now everyone shut up and let me think, I have to plan our course of actions"

Chin sat down on a rock to think, while the others stood there, watching as the flames consume the inn.


	2. Chapter 2

"Well" Chin said, dusting the ash and charcoal from his shirt "That's all I could find"

Two swords lay in front of him, the morning sun glinting off their blades.

Chin's gang stood there, unsure what to make of the situation.

"Dibs!" Cheng shouted. Cheng was one of the rats in Chin's gang, and was very lanky in appearance.

Before anyone else could say anything else Chin's arm snapped forward and grabbed the remaining sword before anyone else could.

"Well that settles that" Chin stated "Cheng and I have weapons, the rest of you will just have to improvise"

"Sir?"

"Yes Bai-Ling what is it?"

"What…what do we do now?"

"Now we… well…I guess we got everything worth salvaging, so we just go find some place new"

"But where?"

"I don't know! Uh…" Chin said and began to think "That's it"

Chin covered his one eye with his greasy palm, and extending his other hand and pointed. Then he began to spin around in a circle. Then he stopped. He was pointing towards the North.

"There!" Chin exclaimed "We'll head that way and see what we can find!"

"Sir?"

"What?" Chin snarled

"I just thought that… well you know, you'd be more…uh…_certain_"

"What are you going on about now woman!?"

"Its just… you're usually more certain about these sort of things"

"Are you calling me an idiot!?"

"No sir!"

"If you don't want to follow my directions you are free to leave at any time!"

"Sorry sir"

"Shut up! Alright men lets go, we have a lot of work to do, except you Bai-Ling! You can just stay behind!"

"No sir! Sorry sir! Can I please come with you sir?"

"Fine, but one more slip up and I'll be using your wings as a blanket! Let's go!"

With that Chin and his gang were on their way. They hiked through the damp muddy fields, slowly making their way Northwards. At about midday they arrived at a large forest. As the rest of the gang rested, Chin paced back and forth restlessly. This whole situation had slowed all his carefully laid out plans drastically. Not only had he lost his base of operations, and the time it would take to find a new one could have been used to create even more dastardly plans, but he had also lost most of his weapons, including several prototypes he had been constructing.

Chin was wearing nothing but his rice hat, a grubby pair of pants and a stained shirt, his scavenged suit of leather armor had been lost in the fire. Despite his lack of armaments Chin did still look quite imposing, despite being very small. His one eye was sharp and piercing.

Chin ran his dirty hands down his face and stroked his long black mustache. Chin did not have a very pleasant looking face. His hair was dirty and greasy, his teeth long and yellow. His face had so many scars that it looked like someone had tried to play tic tac toe on it with a knife. He only had one eye, a dirty rag that served as an eye patch was wrapped around his face.

Chin was still furious at Da-Ming, the oaf had ruined his plans countless times before, yet he was accustomed to his stupidity. He was used to it.

"Sir?" Bai-Ling asked timidly

"What!?" Chin snarled

"You're-I mean uh… you're just passing back and forth sir, is everything okay?"

"Yes! Yes Bai-Ling everything is just bloody peachy!"

"I-"

"Everything's just fine! I've only lost my hideout, my vast arsenal of weaponry, my plans! My beautifully plotted plans, my ingeniously well formulated plans! But besides that everything just wonderful!"

Bai-Ling looked down at her feet.

"Sir?" she asked again

"_What?_" Chin hissed

"Its just that… I'm sorry for…er…never mind…er sir"

Chin glared at her with his one eye.

"Very well, Bai-Ling. Enough rest you blaggards! Let's go!"

Chin and his gang marched forward into the forest. Soon they came upon a large river, and a rickety old bridge going across it. The gang stood there, not moving, to say the bridge looked unstable was an understatement.

"Well" Chin began after a while "Cross the bridge you idiots!"

"Er…"

"Yes Cheng? Do you have something to say?"

"No…well, uh I mean the bridge, boss, looks a bit dangerous"

As if on cue a few boards broke free and tumbled into the water.

"And the river is moving awfully fast, sir"

"Nonsense! The bridge looks fine you ninnies! Look I'll cross it myself!"

Chin began to walk across the bridge. Luckily for him Bai-Ling was there to pluck him out of the water. The small one eyed look wretched as Bai-Ling laid him down, carefully, back on the shore. Angrily Chin got to his feet, shook the water from his hat, and stared at his gang reproachfully, daring them to laugh. The gang was silent. All but Da-Ming and Bai-Ling, however, had to conceal their smirks.

Without a word Chin stood up, his pride wounded, and began walking down the side of the river.

"Come on! Come on! There has to be a better bridge somewhere down stream"

With that Chin, his gang following close behind, made their way down river.


	3. Chapter 3

.Chin and his gang trudged alongside the river. The small rat, dripping water and scowling, had refused to allow Bai-Ling to carry him over the river, his pride was wounded too much already to allow that.

At length the river turned into a waterfall, large rocks jutted up from below with mist floating gently upward. There was a small stone pathway nearby leading downwards. Chin approached it.

"Sir?" Bai-Ling squeaked timidly

Chin stopped, and was silent for a whole second before answering.

"_What?_"

"Are we going to…uh…go down that path? Are you I mean, cause you can't fly an-"

"What are you getting at?"

"It just looks a little…_slippery_"

"Oh! Oh that's it is it!?"

"Wha-"

"Chin is just some stupid clumsy rat? Huh? That's what you're getting at!"

"No! Its just-"

"Chin fell into a river so that must mean he's a stupid oaf! You can't even trust me to walk down a bloody path without having to worry about me sliding down it!? How clumsy do you think I am you winged twit!"

"I…uh…sorry sir" Bai-Ling squeaked.

"Rats are quite agile, I'll have you know, hell we rats wrote the book on agility, that is Master Rat's instruction manual on proper agility techniques, but I digress, You don't have to worry your silly bat brain about us" Chin stated proudly as he began walking down the path.

That path was steep and slick and wet, but to Chin's credit he didn't slip. Da-Ming on the other hand went sliding down the path screaming like a baby. For the first part the path was somewhat straight, Da-Ming slid forward instead of sliding off, however there was a bend up ahead that the large rat was fast approaching.

Flopping his bulky body over, Da-Ming managed to begin sliding on his belly instead of his back, his little pink hands scrabbling and clawing at the rocks in an attempt to save himself. The handfuls of wet gravel and pebbles managed to slow him down somewhat, how ever his bottom half had already gone over the side of the path. With the lightning quick reflexes of someone who's about to die Da-Ming gripped the side of the path. His legs swinging in the air and his chin just level with the rest of the path.

Chin and the rest of the gang hurried down, being careful not to slip. Quickly Chin grabbed hold of Da-Ming's arms and, with all his might, began pulling him up, or at least he tried. Da-Ming being a very large rat, and Chin being a very small rat, made the situation somewhat awkward. Luckily the rest of the gang, Bai-Ling, Xiao, and Cheng were there to help pull Da-Ming to safety. Or they would've if at that very moment Da-Ming happened to kick at a large, loose rock in his desperate scramble to safety.

That rock, unfortunately, fell away from the rest of the cliff, and soon the rest of the cliff fell away too. It started slowly at first, but when the large rock fell the hole it left began to erode into a larger hole as more rocks began trying to take its place, without success. Soon the entire gang were tumbling over in melee of rocks and gravel.

Screaming the rats (Bai-Ling and Xiao could fly so obviously they weren't falling) tumbling down the side of the cliff. Luckily the river (which they couldn't see do to the mist) was directly below them. Unlike upstream, the river was somewhat calmer here, though it still ran quickly. The rats were not, in fact, swept away to their deaths, and they were happy to note that rats were excellent swimmers. Soon they had managed to make their way to the shore line. The two bats swooped down to check on them.

Soaking wet (even wetter than before) Chin approached Da-Ming.

"You're alright?" the one eyed rat asked.

"I think so" Da-Ming replied, briskly checking himself for injuries.

Da-Ming promptly received a dope-slap to the back of his head.

"Don't do that!" Chin shouted "You scared me"

"Uh..sir?" Xiao asked quietly

"What is it Xiao?" Chin snarled

"Its just… you might want to look at this"

"What is it now you stupid flying bas-" Chin stopped "I-I…well what do you know"

As the mist began clearing before them, they saw it. A large ornate temple, carved into the side of the cliff. Long dragons, exquisitely carved lined the long curving steps that lead forward. The temple was as richly decorated as a palace with many statues that seemed to be standing guard. The entire building was covered in moss and vines. Two large gnarled trees sprang from the courtyard. The entire place was thoroughly overgrown, yet still retained its splendor.

The gang stood before it, awe-struck and silent. This was interesting.


End file.
